S TRAPS - Jan 31

Yes there is supposed to be a gap after the S. These are not straps, they are traps where you might mistakenly put an S. This topic came to me after an A Grader at the tournament mentioned to me they had been challenged off when they put an S after a 2 letter word. I then remembered that at club last week I had challenged another A Grade player when they put an S after a different 2 letter word. If A Grade players can make this mistake it should be good revision for other players as well. This list is just 2 letter words after which you cannot put an S. It is not a comprehensive list. I am sure you don't need me to tell you that AX, HM, MY or ST don't take an S. They are just a few I have selected where a mistake might be possible. In most cases they take many other hooks other than an S, but since there are often so many I won't be covering those other hooks, just the fact that they do not take an S

AW - Exclamation of disgust. Exclamations usually don't pluralise

DE - Means FROM. It is usually used in names.

EE - Scots for ONE. No idea why no S. Scots have their own rules

ET - A past tense of the verb EAT

JA - An interjection borrowed from German meaning YES

JO - A Scottish sweetheart. The only plural is JOES

KY - This means CATTLE, so it is already a plural*

NE - Means NOT. This is easy to remember if you say Never Ever S

OW - An interjection expressing pain. Interjections don't pluralise

TO - In the direction of. You can't have tos and fros. Just FROS

UH - Used to express hesitation

UR - Also used to express hesitation

WE - Refers to us as more than one person, so is already a plural

XU - Vietnamese currency. Monetary systems have their own rules

YO - An interjection calling for attention

ZE - A gender neutral 3rd person subjective pronoun like THEY

*Don't assume KYE has the same meaning as KY. It is a public fund in Korean villages for offsetting wedding and funeral costs. KYES is fine

Happy Scrabbling

Patrick